Pentecostals and Political Power in Guatemala
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UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT: PENTECOSTALS AND POLITICAL POWER IN GUATEMALA By Thomas Joseph Metallo A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Coral Gables, Florida July, 1998 c 1998 Thomas Joseph Metallo All Rights Reserved UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy SWORD OF THE SPIRIT: PENTECOSTALS AND POLITICAL POWER IN GUATEMALA Thomas Joseph Metallo Approved: o . _-I.paquin Roy, Chairm n Dr. Steven G. Ullman Professor of International Studies Interim Dean of the Director of Iberian Studies Graduate School ~-- H. McIntire, Jr. ~uchlicki Assistant Provost Professor of Political Science Ambler H. Moss, J . DrktL :lo~/ Professor of International Professor of Theology Studies and Director, Director, DISC, Miami North-South Center METALLO, THOMAS JOSEPH (Ph.D., International Studies) The Sword of the Spirit: (July 1998) Pentecostals and Political Power in Guatemala Abstract of a doctoral dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Dr. Enrique Baloyra and Dr. Joaquin Roy No. of pages in text. (467) Guatemala was predicted to become the first nation to become predominantly Protestant due to the tremendous growth of the Pentecostal church between 1960 and 1990. Historically, the Pentecostal church was very pietistic and did not involve itself in politics. However, the presidency of Efrain Rios Montt (1982-1983) and the election of Jorge Serrano Elias (1991-1993) reflect a change among Pentecostals with regard to political involvement. The Protestant church has moved from a marginalized minority to comprising almost twenty-five percent of the population. In the August, 1994 congressional elections, 20 of the 80 congressmen elected to office were evangelical Christians (25%). Evidence shows that Evangelicals vote for evangelical candidates though the reasons why remain unclear. Despite these developments, the Pentecostal church is still deeply divided over involvement in politics. However, although Pentecostals do not constitute a unified movement, politicians cannot ignore them because they vote in greater numbers than the rest of the population. To the people of Guatemala . "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank Dr. Enrique Baloyra for encouraging me to do this research project, and whose faithful reading of the manuscript and guidance were instrumental to the quality of the final product. I would also like to thank Dr. Joaquin Roy who assumed the chair of my committee during a difficult time and helped expedite the completion of my dissertation. I am also deeply grateful to Dr. Alexander McIntire, Professor Ambler Moss, Jr., and Dr. William Iverson whose diligent reading and insightful suggestions contributed to the quality of the final draft. Special thanks are due to my brother-in-law, Dr. Barry Morstain, who helped me shape my survey instrument. I would also like to express my gratitude to the many people who made this dissertation possible. I would especially like to thank the Chavez family, and the Pacheco family who opened up their homes and made me a part of their families while I was conducting research in Guatemala. Pastor David Chavez treated me like one of his sons and Dona Tonita Chavez taught me the bus routes to, through, and around Guatemala City. Special thanks to Don Guillermo and Dona Marta Pacheco whose political and ecclesiastical contacts were vital to the completion of my research. I also want to thank Marco Tulio Cajas, whose friendship and guidance were tremendously helpful and whose outline and iv scholarship were the source of Chapter 5 of the dissertation. I am also indebted to Dr. Samuel Berberian and his staff at Instituto Federico Crowe. Dr. Berberian's insight and suggestions helped shape the preliminary drafts of the dissertation. He was a constant source of encouragement, and his library was a valuable resource for my research. Thanks are also necessary to his staff who made the hundreds of copies of book and newspaper articles while I was conducting my research. I also want to express my gratitude to Mr. Steve Antosch and Pastor Max Perez who were instrumental in getting me permission to use the Ludwig von Mises Library at the University Francisco Marroquin and the library at Seminario Teologico Centroamericano (SETECA). Special thanks are also due to Santiago Pivaral who made my stay in Quetzaltenango a memorable one. I would also like to thank my dear friend, Jose Gonzalez, for making me a part of the Semilla family, and introducing me to many of the key leaders among Guatemalan evangelicals. Without these contacts this dissertation would have been impossible to complete. Finally, I am forever indebted to my wife, Joyce, for her diligence in proofreading and editing the manuscript, and whose love, encouragement, and support sustained me through graduate school. v The completion of my disseration is also filled with sadness in that three people who were instrumental in the formation, research, and writing died before it was completed. I truly regret that Dr. Barry Morstain, Pastor David Chavez, and Dr. Enrique Baloyra cannot share in the joy of the completion of my dissertation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication • . • • . · . · . iii Acknowledgements • · . iv Table of Contents . vii Introduction . 1 Chapter I. Theory and the Relevance of Religion 21 II. Ideas, Religion, and Politics • • • • • • . •• 86 III. Christianity and Democratization ••.•..• 176 IV. The History of the Evangelical Church in Guatemala • • • • • • • • • • • . 228 V. The Political Metamorhosis of the Evangelical Church . • • • • • . • • • 288 VI. Case Study: Guatemala . • • . • • . 362 VII. Conclusions •... · · · · · · · 405 Appendix A: Survey • . · · · · · · · 429 Appendix B • · · · · · · · 438 Appendix C • · · · · · · · 439 Appendix D • · · · · · 440 Bibliography vii Introduction The Evangelical Church in Guatemala has experienced tremendous growth over the past thirty years. In the opening chapter of his study of the Protestant church in Guatemala, Gennet Maxon Emery wrote: From 1952 to 1962 the average annual increase of the Protestant church was 5%. • • • The fact remains that Protestantism is growing and is becoming a significant factor in the culture change picture in the area. This new religion can no longer be considered a despised minority or an aberration." Wilton Nelson maintains that since 1967, the annual growth rate of the Evangelical church has been 10.5 percent with the result that by 1980 there were approximately 2,316,000 adherents in a total population of 8,000,000. 2 He also notes that in Latin America, the Evangelical community is reckoned to be three times the number of its baptized members. 3 According to Patrick Johnstone of the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, the number of Evangelicals has tripled regionwide in the past 25 years and in some IGennet Maxon Emery, Protestantism in Guatemala: Its Influence on the Bicultural Situation With Reference to the Roman Catholic Background (Cuernavaca: Centro Intercultural de Documentaci6n, 1970), 1. :Wilton M. Nelson, Protestantism in Central America (Grand Rapids: Wiliam B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1984), 72. Published in Spanish as Protestantismo en Centro America (San Jose, Costa Rica, 1982). 3Ibid. 1 2 countries has even sextupled (Appendix D).4 David Stoll has extrapolated from these numbers and has concluded if it triples again over the next 25 years, by 2010 Evangelicals will be a third of the population of Central America (Appendix D). 5 At that point even slowed growth would make Protestants a majority in Latin America. Boaventura Kloppenburg, a Catholic Bishop from Brazil warns: "Latin America is becoming Protestant more rapidly than Central Europe did in the sixteenth century.,,6 The Protestant community's growth in Guatemala has been phenomenal, rising from 2.8 percent of the Guatemalan populace in 1950 to 20 percent in 1981 (Appendix B).7 A decade later, Thomas Giles estimates that 38 percent of the Guatemalan population is Protestant. 8 The evangelical proportion of the population from 1960 to 1985 therefore increased nearly seven times. 9 If the growth rates from 4Andres Tapia, "Why is Latin America Turning Protestant?," Christianity Today, 6 April 1992, 28. 5David Stoll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant? The Politics of Evangelical Growth (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1990), 9. For complete figures for the entlre region and individual countries see Appendix 3, 337- 338. 6Mons ignor Boaventura Kloppenburg at 1984 bishop's conference in Bogota, cited by Thomas Stahel, "The Sects in Paraguay," America, 27 September 1986, 139-141. 7Nelson, Protestantism in Latin America, 72. 8Thomas Giles, "Forty Million and Counting," Christianity Today, 6 April 1992, 32. 9S toll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant?, 9. 3 1960 to 1985 are extrapolated for another twenty-five years to 2010, Guatemala becomes 127 percent evangelical (Appendix D) .10 The 30 percent of the Guatemalans professing Evangelical faith were largely responsible for the January 1991 election of Jorge Serrano Elias, the first Evangelical elected president in Latin America. As in Nicaragua and Brazil, Pentecostalism has predominated. In the decade from 1970 to 1980,